ROBERT ALTMAN (1925-2006)
He defies most of what we know about directors in that few are allowed to direct into their 80s, especially when their track records are inconsistent. He certainly wasn’t box office. I have seen a ton of his films hoping that they would live up to the few that I really like. Although they were all interesting to a point, I’ve been mostly disappointed.
+MASH (1970) – His breakout hit began an even larger TV hit that continued into the 1980s. The film is funny, entertaining and more subtle in its poignance. A combination he rarely achieve in his body of work.
MCCABE AND MRS. MILLER (1971) – Way too bleak for me and a snooze the one time I tried to watch it.
THE LONG GOODBYE (1973) Elliot Gould stars as Philip Marlowe in a contemporary film with hippies and what not although the youthful Marlowe drives a vintage 1940s car. Interesting but not as good as a straight telling of the wonderful novel could have been.
CALIFORNIA SPLIT (1974) – Gould and George Segal star as a couple of gamblers that find that the action is more important than winning. Somewhat entertaining but forgettable.
NASHVILLE (1975) – Overlong with too many uninteresting characters and begging for importance that the critics bought I just couldn’t.
3 WOMEN (1977) – Altman goes all weird European with this story starring Shelley Duval and Cissy Spacek that I still don’t know what it was trying to say.
POPEYE (1980) A famous Box Office disaster that I still find more charming than most of what he’s produced. The setting is certainly Altman bleak, but the songs are catchy enough and Robin Williams is fun.
SECRET HONOR (1984) – Philip Baker Hall is Richard Nixon in this one man show that works pretty well due to the lead actor and the fact that its script doesn’t lend itself to Altman’s quirky touches.
THE PLAYER (1992) – Altman’s comeback after box office failure sent him to work in TV. It’s got a great cast and it’s pretty funny and yet I didn’t really like the resolution which I felt was too cheeky for the drama that led up to it.
+SHORT CUTS (1993) – For some reason this blend of Raymond Carver stories works for me in a way his others films don’t. A great actor like Jack Lemmon and an unusual one like Lyle Lovett and even a bad one like Andie McDowell come together to really make the whole piece work. Probably because it’s full of interesting actors like Fred Ward, Julianne Moore, and Peter Gallagher.
READY TO WEAR (1994) – An attempt at continuing the ensemble thing in the prior two films that “wears” shorts on the attention span.
KANSAS CITY (1996) – Forgettable. Something to do with Belafonte as a KC mobster and Jennifer Jason Leigh struggling for her kidnapped child.
THE GINGERBREAD MAN (1998) – A snooze with Kenneth Branaugh as a southern lawyer. Written by John Grisham. Nuff said.
+GOSFORD PARK (2001) – Like Short Cuts a great movie in the middle of so many misfires. Clever and well cast.
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1 comment:
Short Cuts is by far his best (though I haven't seen MASH). Nashville was a real snoozer but Short Cuts is glorious. I still rank The Player as one of my faves though it was not as glorious when reviewed last year. Player/Short Cuts back to back sure had me thinking he was some kind of genius. Looks like Gosford Park is the only movie since worth watching. It is high on my Netflix list.
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